Santa Fe Complex, a nonprofit that has sought to merge science with art and innovation for the past four years, will close its location on Second Street at the end of the week.
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SF Complex Board Chair Stephen Guerin says the developments are tied to losing funding from a city contract back in March. At the time, the city Economic Development Department cancelled its $100,000 contract with SF Complex because the institute couldn't come up with a sufficient way to meet the city's self-sustainability requirement, he says.
"They wanted the complex to have a full-time staff and become a traditional consulting company," Guerin tells SFR.
That means SF Complex working directly on projects, Geurin says. Instead, the nonprofit contracted out projects with entrepreneurs around the city, he says.
"Internally, we weren't getting to a point where we were going to stand up as a full consulting house," he adds.
So in December, SF Complex decided to meet the city's requirement by moving into a cheaper building and reducing its rent from $5,000 a month to $2,600 a month. Guerin says the change wasn't good enough for the city, despite SF Complex providing $600,000 worth of projects since last September.
"The city is putting more of its economic development basket behind MIX," Guerin says.
SF Complex will hold the final showing of the Ghost in the Armour show tomorrow before shutting its doors but will remain as a nonprofit.
Phone calls to the city's Economic Development Department weren't returned before press time.
